Passover Memories in Collections

The Museum’s April vacation week theme is “Tell me a Story,” a perfect opportunity to share a story from the collection. With an estimated 50,000 items, the collection holds a treasure trove of stories waiting to be told. Some of these are simple, recounting what is known about a specific item or group of items – who the donor was, what the item is, when it entered the Museum collection, where it came from. These are always fun stories to share but I love when visitors to storage share their own stories too! Stories of their childhood or family memories inspired by finding a familiar object, stories of past Museum visits, or both. In these moments, I get my own behind-the-scenes glimpse at what makes the Museum’s collection so special.

Recently, I heard a story that is too good not to share. It is a Passover story. In January, one of the Museum’s long time staff, Jessie Kravette, started working on a project in the collection office. Although Jessie has worked at the Museum for 8 years, she had not previously spent much time in collections and so, like all new staff in the office, her project began with a tour of storage. Not far along our path, Jessie peered in a drawer of dollhouse furnishings and shared her collection story:

When my children were young, we used to come to the Museum regularly, at least once a month. And at some point during our visit, we would always head for the Dollhouse Exhibit, a quiet, darkened, carpeted space full of dollhouses, where you could really relax away from the crowds and immerse yourself in the tiny worlds throughout the room. There was also a wall-based exhibit with cutout Plexiglas windows which allowed visitors to peek into individual family scenes with different set-ups.

My absolute favorite was the Jewish family who were celebrating Passover from around the 1930’s. We were coming from a town where we were the only Jewish family I knew of. I frequently felt isolated and my children had some issues with their Jewish identity because it was so different from what was all around us, particularly at holiday times. So, I used to gravitate to this Passover Seder display and just soak in all of the familiar objects and little set-ups, letting the scene fill me with warmth and ages-old support for my identity.

Fast forward, and now I’m working part time in the collections department. On my first day, Rachel let me explore the storage room and I noticed some dollhouse objects in a large drawer. Looking more closely, my heart literally skipped a beat when I realized it was the same Passover set-up! And when Rachel said I could handle the objects, I couldn’t believe I was finally able to reach through that little window and pick up each tiny, very familiar item, turn it over in my hands, and remember back when…

As Jessie looked at the each detail, she noticed that the same Haggadah (Seder Service book) that lives on the dollhouse Seder table, one at each place, is the exact replica of the Haggadah for her own family’s Seder table. No detail was too small to duplicate in miniature.

While the “Dollhouse Exhibit” – The Ruth Harmony Green Hall of Toys – is no longer a permanent exhibit here at the Children’s Museum, this is just one of the many memories that it sparked. I can’t wait to hear your BCM collection story. Share it with us over on Instagram @bcmcollections, we’d love to hear it!